4OD and ITV Player confirmed for PS3

Console to add UK on-demand TV services this week

Channel 4 and ITV on-demand support has been confirmed for PlayStation 3, with the TV streaming services due to launch this week.

Sony's console has for some time supported the BBC iPlayer, with a limited version of 40D previously accessible via YouTube.

"It is about changing people's attitudes to the PS3 as a platform to view it as a much broader entertainment device," PlayStation UK marketing director Alan Duncan told The Guardian.

"There is a compelling story to tell about the PS3 that goes far beyond gaming."

He predicted a traffic jump of around 10 per cent for ITV and Channel 4 as a result, claiming that 80 per cent of the UK's four million PlayStation 3s were online.

Channel 4 director of commercial business development Sarah Rose revealed that Microsoft was "not coming to our door" to pursue an Xbox version, while the network was unlikely to work with Nintendo due to restrictions on advertising on the Wii.

ITV.com managing director Robin Pembroke described the arrival of the network's programming on PS3 was an "acceleration of our distribution strategy," following an extended period in which ITV was reluctant to provide its content to other firms.

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